Do You Have a Disaster/Recovery Plan?

by Terry Green

Do You Have a Disaster/Recovery Plan?
With the recent onslaught of ice storms and flooding happening all over the US and Canada, as well as the hurricanes that ripped through Florida and the south earlier this year, many people are finding themselves faced with tremendous losses regarding both their homes and their offices. Most people have some type of homeowner's and business insurance to help rebuild and replace personal and business items, but what about your business records and critical files? If your office was destroyed today, would you be able to continue serving your clients and running your business, or would your business come to a complete halt? If you were sick or incapacitated, would anyone else know where to find important files on your computer? Is everything documented so someone could fill in for you until you were able to resume working?
Terence Kierans, Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia http://www.virtualservices.com.au made the following statement regarding a disaster/recovery plan while participating in an International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce (IVWCC) Meet & Greet. He said . . . “In essence it is an essential part of Business Continuity Management (BCM).This is not just about disaster recovery, crisis management, risk management or about IT. It is demonstrably a business issue. It is definitely an area where proactivity is the keyword - as in not shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
It enables you to identify and manage those risks which could result in:
- Inaility to maintain services to your clients.
- Damage to your image or professional reputation.
- Failure to protect your business assets, tangible and intangible.
- Business control failure.
- Failure to meet legal or regulatory requirements.”
He then quoted The Business Continuity Institute, “Business Continuity Management is the act of anticipating incidents which will affect critical functions and processes for the organization and ensuring that it responds to any incident in a planned and rehearsed manner."
His comments sure made a lot of sense to me. Here are some of the things I thought of when considering a plan for my business.
• Take a complete inventory of my hardware; know what I have.
• Know where my CDs (software, backups) are located and keep them in a safe place.
• Know where the licenses are stored (keep a list as well).
• Take regular backups and test them occasionally. Make sure they are readable and that they are backing up the data I need.
• Rotate my backup media and always keep a copy off-site.
• Keep critical files in a safe place.
• Keep passwords, user names, etc. in a safe place. Document what I have.
• Keep a list of all clients, vendors, and who I use to help run my business, with current phone numbers, contacts and account numbers
• Know what my insurance will cover; keep contact names and policy numbers handy.
• Have an alternate place to conduct business in case of an office disaster.
• Have someone in place to fill in for me if I became ill or incapacitated in any way.
• Make sure I'm not the only one that knows all of the above information!
This is by no means a comprehensive list of things to consider when putting together a disaster/recovery or business continuity plan, but it should help to get you going in the right direction. Consider your individual business and what you need to do to stay in business should something unforseen happen.
So keep in mind, If disaster struck tomorrow, would you have everything in place to get everything back up and running in a short period time, or would your business be stopped dead in its tracks?
Copyright 2005 Terry L. Green, GVA

Terry L. Green, is a Graduate Virtual Assistant with more than 25 years of experience in executive and administrative support. Established in 1991, Fastype http://www.myfastype.com provides administrative support to small businesses, mobile executives, professional speakers, and life and business coaches. Terry produces "virtual work that matters" for her clients, and gives them the "gift of time" so that they can spend their valuable time on the more important issues that increase their bottom line and grow their businesses.
This article may be reprinted in its entirety as long as the copyright and bio remain intact, all links are active, and a copy is sent to the author. Terry can be reached by email: terry@www.myfastype.com or via her website http://www.myfastype.com

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Productivity Tip for Setting Priorities

Well, it's my turn. I was tagged!

Jennifer Gniadecki tagged me to come up with a "the ultimate productivity tip". The original tag came from Ben Yoskovitz on the Instigator Blog.

I think I've found a good one about setting priorities, which is very important in any business. SCORE has quite a number of tips for small businesses. Here are their 5 tips to setting priorities:

1. Use a paper-based, electronic or computerized list to keep track of your tasks, instead of relying on your memory. A list will give you a clear idea of what you need to accomplish.
2. Which tasks could you handle another day? If you would face no consequences by moving a task forward, move it ahead another day or another week.
3. Know the difference between important and urgent. Important means a task needs to be done while urgent means it must be done immediately. Knowing the difference between the two will make prioritizing easier.
4. Realize that you can't do everything. This will help you to realistically prioritize your tasks.
5. Determine if postponing the task would affect other projects you are working on. Tasks and projects can have a domino effect. If you do one task, yet fail to do another, you may have wasted effort on the first task.

So, now that that's all done...it's time for me to start some tagging. I am tagging Heather Jacobson and John Herman. I look forward to seeing your tips!

Here are the rules from the Instigator Blog:

1. Write a post on your best productivity tips.
2. Include links to other people that have written posts, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution.
3. If you use Technorati Tags, then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity.”
4. Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!
5. If you link back to Instigator Blog and email Ben, he’ll be sure to include at least 2 links back to you.

The Virtual Alternative - Why A Virtual Assistant And Not An Employee?

By Yvonne Weld
A Virtual Assistant is a business owner who provides administrative support and specialized services to assist businesses and executives with their overflow. A Virtual Assistant can handle any task that is usually handled by an in house employee, but unlike an employee, a Virtual Assistant shares your goals to succeed in business; they only succeed if you succeed. But why would you want to work with a Virtual Assistant instead of having the physical presence of an employee?

No Hidden Costs
A Virtual Assistant takes care of all the usual employee related costs including such things as wage related costs, vacation pay, sick days, statutory holidays and benefits. Not only that, when you hire a Virtual Assistant, you are no longer required to pay overhead costs associated with an employee such as providing a computer and the associated software programs or even a desk. With an employee, these costs can add up to 50%-100% over the hourly rate of pay you are paying your employee. With a Virtual Assistant, what you see is what you pay; if the Virtual Assistant charges $35 per hour this is the price you pay.

No Time Commitments
Virtual Assistants can provide you with services on an as-needed basis. If you only require 1 or 2 hours of service this month, that is all you pay for. Where would you find an employee who is willing to work for just 1 to 2 hours per month? In most areas, labour laws require you to pay your employee(s) in 3 to 4 hour blocks of time. So even if you could find someone willing to work for just 1 day per month, you may have to find enough work to keep them busy for those hours or pay them even though they are not being utilized.

Experience/Expertise
Most Virtual Assistants specialize in a niche area where they have experience and/or expertise. This allows you, as a business owner, to work with a highly skilled and experienced person no matter the task at hand. As a business owner you could easily utilize the services of several VAs, each with their own specialty. You could have one VA handling your bookkeeping, one maintaining your Web site and another still planning your corporate events and meetings.

No Wasted Time
Productivity inefficiencies are a huge concern for employers these days. Many employees, when asked, admit to wasting their employer’s time on such things as personal matters, surfing the Internet and socializing with other employees. With a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the time they are actually working on your job. When they are talking to their mother on the telephone, surfing the Internet or socializing, it is on their time and not yours. Many Virtual Assistants take this one step further and dedicate blocks of time completely to your job and will not even answer phone calls or emails during that dedicated time. When they are working on your project it has their complete and absolute attention until the task is completed.

Fellow Business Owner
Perhaps the most important consideration when comparing Virtual Assistants to employees is that unlike an employee, a Virtual Assistant is also a business owner like you. Both you and your Virtual Assistant are interested in achieving success because as your partner they only succeed if you succeed. VAs, more than employees, understand what it takes to run a successful business.

Remember, however the biggest advantage to working with a Virtual Assistant is that you are not limited by the talent pool within your geographical area. Thanks to technological advances, your Virtual Assistant can be the person that best fits your needs and personality, regardless of whether they are in the next state or province, on the other side of the country or even in a completely different country than you are.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Yvonne Weld is the owner of Canadian based ABLE Virtual Assistant Services specializing in providing administrative and bookkeeping support to busy entrepreneurs. She is also the author of The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business which provides a step-by-step guide to documenting your business. For your free audio teleclass on the areas you should consider when documenting your business and for more information about The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business, visit the Web site at http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com.

Yvonne Weld is the owner of Canadian based ABLE Virtual Assistant Services and the author of "The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business". For more information visit http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com